Home Automation. It can be as simple as buying a hub and some devices. But, I went the self-hosted route using Home Assistant to give me more control of what it can do.

I have some automations that turn on a certain set of lights on when the sun sets and off when it rises. It’s pretty simple, but saves electricity because I used to leave my front porch light on 24/7.

I just set up an automation last night that sends me a discord notification when the laundry machine finishes and the same for the dryer. I can’t hear the beeping because I am always too far from the laundry room. This one has me so excited!

I’ve seen people automate gardens which seems really neat. Really, your only limit is your imagination. I also just really like having an app on my phone to toggle power to random lights and fans around my house. It helps me get out of bed because I can turn the fan off when I’m cold in bed.

This was a relatively short-term thing, but I think it counts loosely as hobbyish… in my 20s, I was determined to find the best bloody mary in town. I went to every single bar, restaurant, etc. and tried each one in turn.

Which sounds boring, I know, but I had so many great conversations and met so many interesting people.

And to answer your likely question: Surprisingly, Red Lobster, which made its own mix from real tomato juice and didn’t use some crappy bloody mary mix. This was in the 90s, so I can’t endorse their current bloody mary.

Self Hosting. I love optimizing my securing my life while improving my family’s privacy. Nextcloud to store and backup media, contacts, and knowledge base. Hosting a free remote VPN on OCI, remote encrypted backups to a fellow enthusiast’s server…I love that while my data is local, if my house was to burn down, the years of pictures and precious memories will still be available. I also like being able to use this tech to help people close to me, doing backups for them, sharing ISO’s, etc.

Ham radio.

On the surface, it just sounds like listening to a bunch of old farts babbling on about their enlarged prostates, and tbf, there is a bit of that if you never go any deeper than 2M/70cm voice modes.

But there’s just SOOOO much you can do.

Want to see how far you can bounce a signal off a mirror laying on the surface of the moon? Yup. You can do that.

Want to launch and communicate with your own satellite? Yup. It’s a thing.

Want to remotely control devices from hundreds of miles away without using the internet? Yup.

Want to gps track your car at all times, even when there’s no cell phone service? That’s called APRS.

Want to have a conversation with astronauts on the ISS as it flies overhead? They’ve got ham equipment on board.

You can even play with broadcasting and/or receiving “secret” tv and radio stations - that is, they’re on alternate frequencies that regular TVs and radios don’t pick up.

It just goes so deep.